


It's Easier to Breathe (with you around me)

by trashwriter



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Crushes, Family Fluff, Former Babysitter Tanaka, M/M, Single Parent Ennoshita, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 04:56:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4087747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trashwriter/pseuds/trashwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Ennoshita has a meltdown, Ryuu has a crush, and somehow it all works out just fine.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Easier to Breathe (with you around me)

Normally, Ryuu considered himself to be a very patient and forgiving guy. But awake and in charge of running his family’s convenience store at two o’clock on a Saturday morning—and being forced to listen to some poor kid scream it’s throat raw because it’s parents were assholes who hadn’t figured out the concept of bedtime yet—hardly counted as ‘normally’.

Which was why it the pause where the kid gasped for more air to continue its wailing, Ryuu finally said: “Screw it,” and started hunting through the aisles for the offending parent in question, ready, willing and more than able to scare the jerkwad into taking the poor kid home and putting it to bed.

He found them in the cereal aisle and immediately all the wind went out of his sails, because sitting in the middle of the aisle with a box of rice puffs in one hand and his screaming daughter plastered against his other side, clinging tight to his neck, was Ennoshita Chikara, exhausted-looking, and seemingly on the verge of tears himself

Ryuu wasn’t about to kid himself, he had a soft spot for Ennoshita. Part of that was due to an easy friendship and the other part was due to a wickedly persistent crush, both parts developed over the years he’d spent baby-sitting Hana-chan after school so that Ennoshita-san could work.

That had of course been before Ryuu had graduated and his granny had taken a nasty fall and broken her hip. It had been about six months since he’d even seen Ennoshita outside of improbably late-night fantasies.

“Ennoshita-san.”

“Ah, Ryuu-kun, what are you doing here?”

There was a definite wobble in the man’s voice. But Hana-chan broke off mid-wail at the sound of his voice.

“I work here, this is my family’s place,” said Ryuu crouching down next to them and ruffling Hana-chan’s fluffy chocolate-colored hair, and settling her against his hip when she squirmed away from Ennoshita and wrapped him in a wet, sweaty, hiccupy, snot-filled hug, “The real question is, what are you two doing out so late?”

And that did it.

Ennoshita’s eyes welled up and he buried his face in his knees in a futile attempt to hide the tears now rolling freely down his face.

“I can’t do this, I just can’t!” he said, “I don’t know what to do, she won’t sleep and she won’t stop crying, and she won’t eat anything I make for her and she probably hates me—I don’t know how to do this by myself!”

Ennoshita was sobbing in earnest now, his shoulders shaking with choking breaths even as Ryuu rearranged himself so that one arm was wrapped around the kid and the other around the father, whispering soothing nonsense and rubbing soothing circles over their backs.

Hana-chan fell into a near-doze after the first ten minutes, and after they passed the twenty minute mark Ennoshita had stopped crying, and was just curled up in a ball of wrung-out misery. Ryuu just tried not to enjoy the heat radiating of his skin or the way he fit perfectly curled up against his side.

“Come on,” he offered quietly, after giving Ennoshita another ten minutes to get himself under control, hauling the three of them to their feet with a long groan,“You need to sleep at least as badly as she does.”

“Right, I’m sorry for being a bother I’ll just pay for this and—where are we going?”

“I’m living in the apartment above the shop here at the moment, you can crash in my bed and I’ll watch Hana-chan for you,” Ryuu explained, ushering the man up the stairs and flicking on the lights.

“I couldn’t—I can’t, Ryuu-kun that’s very kind of you but—”

“Shut up,” Ryuu said, hiking Hana-chan, who is awake again watching the proceedings while chewing furiously on her own fist, further up his hip and digging around in a drawer until he finds a clean t-shirt and a pair of drawstring pajama bottoms he never wears and shoving them at the older man, “If you make a fuss I won’t comp your cereal.”

Ennoshita’s mouth fell open slightly as he scrambled reflexively to catch the clothes.

“Bathroom’s through there, help yourself to whatever’s in the fridge, I’ll be downstairs until sis comes in at six if you need anything.”

Ennoshita was still gaping when Ryuu hurried out of the apartment and back downstairs, pointedly not thinking about the way that the neckline of his shirt would gape around Ennoshita’s slender neck or what he might look like climbing into Ryuu’s unmade bed.

Luckily enough, there aren’t any customers in the store and Ryuu is free to pilfer the shelves for children’s ibuprofen, a pair of fluffy pink earmuffs and an unfrozen but still effective teething ring when Hana-chan started fussing again.

After that she’s out like a light, slumped boneless and baby-soft in his lap, warm and smelling faintly of talcum powder.

The few customers that come in for canned coffee or bentos in the wee hours are too out of it to do more than blink twice at the toddler.

Ryuu left Saeko and Yui-san to deal with the delivery and the morning rush and made a valiant effort at not blushing at their teasing questions as he fled upstairs.

The sun shade had kept the sunrise out of his bedroom for the most-part and Ennoshita was still dead to the world curled up under Ryuu’s comforter with his chocolate-coloured hair splayed over Ryuu’s pillow.

Moving quietly so as not to wake him Ryuu laid Hana-chan down in the little valley created by her father’s body and the wall, smiling at her snuffling sigh, and brushing a finger along her velvet soft cheek fondly.

Of course it was just then that Ennoshita’s eyes—sleep-fogged, dark and beautiful—blinked half-open to catch him hovering half-over him.

“Ryuu?” murmured Ennoshita.

Ryuu’s heart clenched heavily in his chest, lept up into his throat and started racing, “G-go back to sleep,” he managed to stutter out, blushing heavily, “I—everything’s fine.”

“Missed you,” sighed Ennoshita burrowing more deeply into the pillow and dropping back into sleep between one breath and the next.

“You can’t just say things like that,” Ryuu grumbled to himself, glad that no one was around to witness just how red his face had probably just become, he darted a quick glance at the door before reaching out to smooth Ennoshita’s bangs away from his forehead and drop a light kiss to his temple. “I missed you too, though.”

**Author's Note:**

> It took me a while to get this out even though I knew exactly what I wanted to write about which is why it get's the honor of being published here even though technically speaking it's an askbox fill from my tumblr. Hopefully you all enjoyed, please feel free to leave me some comments with your thoughts.


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